And after the women’s boat successfully sealed their headship by rowing over, Oriel’s men’s boat bumped Pembroke in front of the Pembroke boathouse to seal a double victory.

Oxford University Rowing Clubs (OURCs) and its senior umpires made a unanimous decision to call off Thursday’s racing due to freezing temperatures and unsafe conditions.

Senior umpire David Locke told college captains: “We are concerned that… any incidents that occur may be made too severe too quickly for our mitigation measures to be effective enough. The towpath is likely to be very difficult to keep safe tomorrow.

“We cannot remember conditions as bad as this for Torpids.”

After a similarly cold and snowy day on Thursday, the decision was then made to call off Friday’s racing as well.

However, after hundreds of rowers lent OURCs a hand yesterday afternoon by clearing snow and ice from the towpath, Locke announced that Saturday’s racing would go ahead.

“Saturday of Torpids will run, but with half divisions (so top half of Div 3 upwards) and with some other important restrictions. Most notably this includes a ban on umpire/coach cycling as per Saturday of Eights and X/S [status] coxes only,” he said.

It meant that for rowers in divisions four and below, there would be no chance to build on or make amends for results on Wednesday.

Before the all-important final races of the day, several crews managed to bump for the second time in the competition.